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Couple Asks Internet to Make Their Baby Dreams Come True

byKaitlin StanfordAug 21, 2014

When doctors first gave Stacey Terrasi the news, her world stood still. Though she was just 13 years old at time, she still remembers how the crisp, white walls of the doctor's office she was sitting in seemed to go black. As they read off her diagnosis, her dreams for the future felt dashed.

She had Alpha-one Antitrypsin Deficiency, the doctors told her. And while she could still go on to live a "normal" life in many other ways, there was one thing the liver and lung disease would forever take away: her ability to carry children of her own.

For a young girl who dreamed of one day becoming a wife and mother, the diagnosis was like a knife to the heart. But fast-forward 15 years (and many medical advancements later) and the Arizona native isn't just ready to walk down the aisle with her fiancé and best friend, Kevin DaSilva — she also hopes to hear the pitter-patter of little feet soon.

As for how the DaSilvas will get there? Well, that's where you come in.

In June, the Phoenix couple decided to put aside any pride they might have by setting up a GoFundMe page and asking others for help. After researching the astronomical costs of surrogacy — which can reach a jaw-dropping $40,000 — and facing the added financial burden of their upcoming nuptials in October, they realized that the only thing that stood in their way of parenthood now was money. And maybe that could be fixed.

So they set up a webcam in their living room and started to tell their story, in the hopes that others out there might want to be a part of their baby journey, too. And boy, did their story turn out to be a moving one!

While the couple still has a long way to go until they reach $40,000 in donations, they say that each and every dollar raised so far has meant the world to them.

"[Stacey] cried a lot after her 6th grade teacher was the first one to make a donation," said Kevin in an email to mom.me. "It was only $10, but probably felt like a million dollars to Stacey. I asked her if it was tears of joy and she said, 'Yes!'"

In truth, the entire baby journey so far has been an emotional one for Stacey, who was shocked to learn that surrogacy is actually illegal in the couple's home state of Arizona. Instead, they have to work with an agency to try to find a gestational carrier in a neighboring state.

But having Kevin by her side throughout it all has undoubtedly made it easier. After all, the couple's sweet love story has been a unique one from the start — one that Kevin admits almost didn't happen.

"I nearly turned down an invitation to attend a birthday party in Scottsdale, Ariz.," he shared with mom.me, of their chance meeting back in 2006. "But my friend Brandon somehow persuaded me to change my mind."

We bet he's seriously thanking Brandon now, since that was the very same night that Kevin met Stacey.

Communicating was a little challenging at first for the pair, as Kevin has been deaf since birth, and Stacey knew next to nothing about sign language. But they managed.

"We had to type messages on my phone back and forth, or finger spell very slowly," Kevin remembers.

But no matter. Soon, the two became the best of friends, and after "hanging around her life for five years," Kevin says he finally won her heart. It was Kevin who inspired Stacey to go to his alma mater, Gallaudet University, in Washington, D.C., and eventually become a language interpreter. Now, even her parents are studying sign language, to better communicate once they all become one big happy family. The two are set to walk down the aisle on October 5 in Peoria, Ariz., where they'll dance the night away with 130 of their closest friends and family. (And according to Kevin, get stuffed on a menu full of Italian food that's "to die for.")

Until then, they'll continue dreaming of their future little boy or girl, hoping he or she will arrive sooner in their lives rather than later. And while they're both psyched for just about everything a little baby will bring, there's one thing in particular they can't wait to watch their little munchkin do: sign for the first time.

"Babies signing back to [their] parents has to be one of most beautiful things on the earth ... to witness small hands in motion until the parents understand what the baby wants," said Kevin. "That is what we want to experience during early stage of our parenting."